Aluminum alloys for electrical conductor

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides an aluminum alloy conductor wire consisting essentially of about 0.01 - 0.6% by weight antimony, about 0.05 - 0.6% by weight magnesium, less than 0.4% be weight copper and less than 0.7% by weight of a member selected from the group consisting of iron, nickel and manganese, the balance being aluminum and unavoidable impurities thereof, a part of the antimony and magnesium forming an intermetallic compound, said compound being uniformly dispersed in an aluminum matrix, the alloy wire having, when cold drawn and not annealed, a minimum conductivity of 54% IACS and when annealed and then cold drawn, a minimum conductivity of 58% IACS.

United States Patent [191 Nakajirna et a1.

[5 1 ALUMiNuM ALLOYS FOR ELECTRICAL CONDUCTOR ,[75] Inventors: Katsuhisa Nakajima: Sadao lnoue,

both of Nikko, Japan [73] Assignee: The Furukawa Electric Company Limited, Tokyo, Japan [22] Filed: Dec. 15, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 208,444

Related U.S. Application Data [63] Continuation-impart of Ser. No. 828,737, May 28,

1969, abandoned.

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data June 6, 1968 Japan 43/38827 Aug. 2, 1968 Japan 43/54798 [52] U.S. Cl 75/142, 29/193, 75/147, 7 148/32 [51] Int. Cl. C22c 21/00 [58] Field of Search 75/147, 142; 148/32, 148/325; 29/193 m1 3,773,501 NOV. 20, 1973 [56] 9 References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1/1939 Dickin 75/142 Primary ExaminerRichard 0. Dean Attorney-E. F. Wenderoth et al.

[57] ABSTRACT annealed, a minimum conductivity of 54% lACS and when annealed and then cold drawn, a minimum conductivity of 58% lACS.

5 Claims, No Drawings ALUMINUM ALLOYS FOR ELECTRICAL CONDUCTOR This application is'a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 828,737 filed May 28, 1969, now abandoned.

This invention relates to aluminium alloys for electrical conductor, particularly Al-(Sb'Mg) alloys, having improved strength and elongation in hardened, semihardened and softened conditions without substantial lowering of electrical conductivity as compared with conventional aluminium alloys for electrical conductor. I Conventionally, aluminium alloys for electrical conductor such as ASTM 6201 alloy'(Al-Mg-Si alloys) and ASTM 5005 alloy (Al-Mg alloy) have been used for most of the aluminium conductors in aerial power transmission lines, and particularly aluminium alloys for electrical conductor, inspite of their poor strength, have been used extensively as aluminium conductor steel reinforced (ACSR) because of their excellent electrical conductivity.

in order to meet the recent rapidly increasing demand for electric power, more economical designs for overhead power transmission and distribution lines have been reconsidered and the advantage of allaluminium-alloy cables (AAAC) having excellent sagtension characteristic and free from detrimental effects ofthe steel core such as corrosion and resistance loss has been recognized again.

However, the conventional 6201 alloy is an agehardening alloy and requires a special manufacturing process combining an age-hardening heat treatment of solution-heating, quenching and tempering with cold wire drawing to give work-hardening effects, so that its production cost is very high. Therefore, inspite of its good properties such as the electrical conductivity of about 52% lACS and the tensile strength of about 32kg/mm the alloy has been used only for special applications and scarcely used for the all-aluminium-alloy stranded cable replacing the aluminium conductor steel reinforced.

While, 5005 alloy is a typical solid solution alloy which is non-hardenable by heat treatment, and can be strengthened only by work hardening through cold wire drawing so that inspite of its lower tensile strength of about 24kg/mm (electrical conductivity of about 53% lACS) as compared with 6201 alloy, the advantage of non-heat treatment and therefore low production cost more than makes up for the disadvantage of lower tensile strength and permits the alloy to be commercially used as all-aluminium-alloy stranded cable.

However, in practical applications, as 5005 alloy has a poor conductivity-strength relation, development of a low cost aluminium alloy for electrical conductor has been urgently desired, which requires no heat treatment and which has similar strength to and better electrical conductivity than 5005 alloy or which has similar electrical conductivity to, and better strength than 5005 alloy.

While, aluminium conductors used in communication systems, indoor wirings, coiling, etc., require good tensile strength, elongation and electric conductivity combined-with good workability into fine wire.

In the past, for such conductors, A; Va hardened aluminium for electrical conductor prepared by an intermediate annealing-working process or a wire-drawingannealing process was considered. But in order to obtain conductors having required properties it is necessary to control the working reduction within a tolerance of i 1% in the intermediate annealing-working process and also the annealing temperature within such severe tolerance as i 5 C in the wire drawingannealing process, and industrialization of such process would require special equipments and high degree of technics only with an unsatisfactory result that products have much variation in their quality, thus causing lower yield. Further in case of aluminium for electrical conductor, when drawn into fine wire, much breaking is encountered during the drawing operation, thus hindering speed-up of the wire drawing operation.

As for the Al-Sb binary alloy, nothing has been known except its equilibrium phase diagram, and there has been no information about its electrical and mechanical properties.

The present inventors studied the Al-Sb binary alloy, but could not improve the properties of aluminium by the antimony solid soluble in aluminium, or by the intermetallic compound formed between aluminium and antimony. Then the.present inventors fully reviewed the effects of various third elements on the Al-Sb alloy and have found that in case of Al-Sb-Mg alloys obtained by addition of suitable amount of magnesium into the Al-Sb alloy, antimony and magnesium produce an intermetallic compound in aluminium in a uniform dispersion in the matrix, and remarkably improve the mechanical properties of the alloy without substantially lowering the electric conductivity, and thus the present inventors have developed an aluminium alloy for electrical conductor excellent in strength and elongation in hardened, semi-hardened and softened conditions.

Therefore, one of the objects of the present invention is to provide a novel aluminium alloy for electrical conductor having improved properties (conductivity, strength and ductility) whether in hardened, semihardened or softened conditions, over the conventional aluminium for electrical conductor and aluminium alloys.

Other object of the present invention is to provide an aluminium alloy for electrical conductor having similar electric conductivity and better strength in a hardened condition than the conventional 5005 alloy, or having similar strength and better electric conductivity than 5005 alloy.

Further object of the present invention is to provide an aluminium alloy for electrical conductor which shows improved strength and ductility without substantially lowering electric conductivity in semi-hardened or softened condition as compared with the conventional semi-hardened or softened aluminium for electrical conductor.

The present invention shall be described further in detail.

The alloys of the present invention comprise pure aluminium with addition of 0.01 0.6% by weight (hereinafter expressed by for short) antimony, 0.05 0.6% magnesium, and further addition of up to 0.4% by weight copper and up to 0.7% of one or more elements (including those deriving from impurities usually contained in aluminium) whose binding-energy with antimony or magnesium is less than that between antimony and magnesium, so as to obtain an aluminium alloy for electrical conductor having similar electric conductivity and better strength in a hardened condition than the conventional 5005 alloy or having similar strength and better electric conductivity than 5005 alloy, or an aluminium alloy for electrical conductor having better strength and elongation, without sacrifice of electric conductivity, in a semi-hardened or softened condition, than the semi-hardened or softened aluminium for electrical conductor.

The reason for limiting the antimony content and the magnesium content to 0.01 0.6% and 0.05 0.6% respectively in the alloys of the present invention is that in case antimony content is less than 0.01% or magnesium content is less than 0.05%, the amount of compounds between antimony and magnesium is not enough for improving the properties of the alloy, while in case antimony content or magnesium content is more than 0.6%, the fluidity of molten metal will be lowered, making it difficult to obtain sound cast ingots. Particularly, excess of the antimony content will not only lower remarkably the workability of the alloy, but also increase the size of compounds formed between antimony and magnesium, thus weakening the strength improvement effect, while excess of the magnesium content will increase the amount of soluble magnesium, thus remarkably lowering the electric conductivity.

The contents of antimony and magnesium are not stated by percentage in equivalent of compound because excess antimony or magnesium is not harmful, and causes no problem for commercial use as far as they are within the above ranges of composition.

The reason for adding up to 0.4% by weight of copper and up to 0.7% by weight of one or more elements such as iron, nickel, manganese, tellurium, whose binding energy with antimony or magnesium is less than that between antimony and magnesium, is that even when one or more of these elements are contained, compounds between antimony and magnesium are formed in the aluminium alloy, and the properties of the aluminium alloy may be further improved by addition of these elements, but more than 0.7% by weight of these elements will lower electric conductivity, corrosion resistance and workability of the alloy, thus prohibiting commercial use of the alloy as electro conductive material. Although all of the elements whose binding energy with antimony or magnesium is less than that between antimony and magnesium will give almost similar effects when they are contained in the alloy, it is most effective to add copper or iron or both.

ln order to give the alloys of the present invention excellent tensile strength without substantially lowering electric conductivity as compared with the conventional aluminium for electrical conductor, it is desirable to add 0.03 0.4%, more preferably 0.01 0.1%, of antimony and 0.05 0.5%, more preferrably 0.08 0.3% of magnesium.

And in order to give the alloys of the present invention similar strength to and better electric conductivity than the conventional 5005 alloy, or similar electric conductivity to and better strength than 5005 alloy, it is desirable that one or more elements whose binding energy with antimony or magnesium is less than that between antimony and magnesium are contained in 0.05 0.6% for each element and in 0.05 0.6% in total.

Further in order to give the alloys of the present invention better tensile strength and electric conductivity than the conventional 5005 alloy, it is desirable that either iron whose binding energy with antimony or magnesium is less than that between antimony and magnesium, is contained in a range of0.05 0.6%, more preferably 0.05 0.5%, and for copper, up to 0.4% and for both, 0.05 0.5% in total.

As for aluminium metal used in the present invention, commercially available aluminium ingot may be used, but it is preferable to use aluminium of more than 99.5% purity. And the alloys of the present invention may be produced by entirely the same method as the conventional aluminium for electrical conductor or 5005 alloy. Thus, antimony is added to a molten metal of aluminium, binary alloys such as Al-Fe, Al-Cu, or trinary alloys such as Al-Cu-Fe, then magnesium is added to the molten alloys. After that, the molten alloy is subjected to wire rod making by a continuous casting and rolling method using rotary moulds, or ingots obtained by casting with water cooling is pre-heated and may be easily worked down to wire rod either through hot rolling by a wire rolling mill or through hot extrusion by an extrusion press. The wire rod thus obtained is subjected to cold drawing on a high-speed continuous drawing machine down to required size of hardened electric conductor suitable for overhead power transmission and distribution lines.

The above obtained hard conductor can be converted by annealing at a temperature between 500 C into semi-hard or soft aluminium alloy conductor suitable for communication systems, indoor wirings, and coilings. The above annealing temperature between l50 500 C is selected for the reason that if the annealing is done below 150 C, elongation necessary for a semi-hard or soft conductor can not be obtained and no improvement of electric conductivity can be seen whatever working ratio is taken, while above 500 C grains will excessively grow in size, thus lowering elongation and flexibility and increasing variation in quality.

The above hard conductor can be converted into a still better semi-hard aluminium alloy conductor by annealing it and then cold drawing it down to less than 50%.

As clearly understood from the above description, the alloys of the present invention when made into hard conductor, completely eliminate such a series of agehardening heat treatments combined with workings as required for production of the conventional 6201 alloy, and can be produced as easily as or more easily than 5005 alloy. And the alloys can also easily be made into semi-hard or soft conductor, because it has much wider range of annealing temperature than any conventional aluminium alloy for electrical conductor.

The present invention will be fully understood from the following examples which are not of restrictive nature to the present invention.

EXAMPLE 1 The wires of the present invention and other wires (for comparison), respectively, having the compositions set forth in Table l were cast with water cooling into bar ingots of 4 inches X 4 inches size by an ordinary melting and casting method, and the ingots thus obtained were hot rolled at 450 C on a wire rolling maparative alloy No. l) with only lowered conductivity; thus these alloys are not improved in respect of properties as a conducte r wire.

While, the comparative Al-Mg alloy of No. 4 shows some improvement in tensile strength but shows considerably lowered conductivity. From the relation between the conductivity and the tensile strength, this alloy is not advantageous as compared with conventional conductor wires.

Whereas the present inventive wires of Al-Mg-Sb alloys No. l to No. 7 in which Mg and Sb are present in aluminium show considerable improvement in the tensile strength without lowering the conductivity inherent to Al-Sb alloys and considerable improvement in the conductivity and tensile strength inherent to Al-Mg alloys.

In case of Al-Sb alloys, Al and Sb is dissolved in aluminium or Al and Sb form an intermetallic compound, improvement of strength of aluminium can not be obtained, and in case of Al-Mg alloys, Mn dissolved in aluminium improves tensile strength slightly, but lowers conductivity considerably.

Whereas in case of the present inventive Al-Mg-Sb alloys, the intermetallic compound of Mg and Sb uniformly dispersed in the aluminium matrix improves tensile strength, and the reduced amount of dissolved Mg and Sb improves conductivity.

However, even in case of Al-Sb-Mg alloys, when the balance between Sb and Mg is not maintained and the composition is outside the range of the present invention, the intermetallic compound of Mg and Sb becomes too large to lower tensile strength castability, workability, bending property'as a conductor wire and elongation, and thus the alloys can not be used as a conductor wire. Further as clearly understood from the comparative alloy of No. 3, no substantial improvement in tensile strength is attained.

It is clear that in case of the present inventive conductor wires of No. l to No. 7, the excellent conductivity, tensile strength and ductility can be attained only when an appropriate amounts of Mg and Sb are copresent in aluminium'.

Further, as seen from the present inventive alloys of NO. 8 to No. 14, tensile strength can be improved without lowering conductivity and ductility by adding an element, such as Fe, having lower binding energy than the binding energy of the intermetallic compound of Sb and Mg in addition to the appropriate amounts of Sb and Mg. However, in case of any of comparative Al- Mg-Fe alloys of No. 8 and No. 9 and comparative Al- Sb-Fe alloys of No. 10 and No. 9, it is impossible to improve tensile strength enough to compensate for lowering the conductivity although ductility is not lowered. It is clear from this that the properties are improved only when both Mg and Sb are present in aluminium.

Even when an appropriate amounts of Mg and Sb are present in aluminium, tensile strength is not improved so much as the lowering of conductivity and ductility is considerably lowered when Fe is too much, and thus the alloy can not be used as a conductor wire. This can be probably attributed to an observation that when the iron content increases, the dispersion of the intermetallic compound of Mg and Sb becomes non-uniform due to the excessively enlarged intermetallic compound of Al and Fe.

Next, also in case of Al-(Mg'Sb) alloys containing an appropriate amount of intermetallic compound of Mg and Sb with addition of Cu which has lower binding energy than the binding energy of Mg and Sb, namely in case of the present inventive alloys No. 15 to No. 22, the addition of Cu improves tensile strength without substantially lowering ductility and conductivity.

Whereas in case of the comparative Al-Sb-Cu alloys of No. 12 and No. 13, tensile strength is not improved so much as compared with the lowering of conductivity, and also in case of comparative Al-Mg-Cu alloys of No. 14 and No. 15, tensile strength is not improved as compared with the remarkable lowering of conductiv ity, and ductility also lowers.

As understood from the above, the favourable effect of copper addition is obtained only when an appropriate amount of Mg and Sb in combination is present'in aluminium, and no desirable effect is obtained when Mg alone or Sb alone is present.

Further, even when an appropriate amount of Mg and Sb in combination is present, the copper content is too much, conductivity lowers considerably and ductility is completely lost, while no substantial improvement of tensile strength is obtained, as seen in the comparative alloy of No. 25.

Still further, an appropriate amount of Cu and Mg is present, if Sb content is too much as in the comparative alloy, No. 26, or if Cu and Sb are more than the composition range of the present invention, the alloy can not be used as a conductor wire.

The reason is that when Cu is present in an amount more than 0.4 wt.%, an intermediate phase of Al and Cu presipitates, causing lowering of conductivity and ductility and irregular dispersion of the intermetallic compound of Mg and Sb.

Namely, in case of Al-(Mg-Sb)-Cu alloy, the intermetallic compound of Mg and Sb and the dissolved copper cooperate to balance tensile strength and conductivity. Thus it is clear that copper should not be contained in an amount which causes precipitation of an intermediate phase or a stabilized phase and the like, and also Sb should not be more than 0.6 wt.%.-"

Next, when Cu and Fe both of which have lower binding energy than the binding energy of Mg and Sb are contained, as in the present inventive alloys of No. 23 to No. 32, tensile strength can be improved without lowering substantially conductivity and ductility, and particularly the present inventive Al-(Mg'Sb)-Fe-Cu alloys of No. 24, No. 25 and No. 26 show a better balance between tensile strength and tensile strength as compared with the present inventive Al-(Mg'Sb) alloys, Al-(Mg'Sb)-Fe alloys and Al- (Mg'Sb)-Cu alloys.

Even in these alloys, the total amount of Cu and Fe exceeds 0.7 wt.% as in the comparative alloys of No. 28, No. 29 and No. 32, ductility lowers remarkably and conductivity also lowers considerably, while tensile strength is not improved as compared with the alloy containing less than 0.7 wt.% of Cu and Fe. Of course, the comparative alloys of No. 30 and No. 31 which contains a large amount of Mg and Sb can not be'used as conductor wire.

It is clear from the above descriptions, the present inventive conductor 1 wire contains an appropriate amount of Mg and Sb which must be uniformly dispersed as intermetallic compound in aluminium, and for this reason the amount of Mg and Sb, and the amount of the element such as Fe and Cu which have lower energy than the binding energy of Mg and Sb should not exceed a certain amount.

Thus, the conventional alloy of 5005 can be improved remarkably by the present invention in conductivity or tensile strength, and can be used widely as conductors such as steel-cored aluminium alloy wires, aluminium alloy wire strands.

EXAMPLE 2 Drawing workability is a property required for production in addition to conductivity, tensile strength and ductility required as conductor wire.

In order to determine drawing workability, wire rods produced similarly as in Example 1 are cold drawn to possible minimum diameters, and the number of wire breaks during the drawings are shown inTable 3. The drawing conditions are just same as in case of ECAL.

As clearly understood from Table 3, Al-(Mg'Sb) alloys containing more than 0.6 wt.% of Sb and Mg, drawability is poor, and even when Mg and Sb are contained in an appropriate .amount if Cu is contained more than 0.4 wt.%, or Fe is contained excessively drawability is very poor, and particularly the comparative alloys No. 25, No. 27 and No. 28 containing Cu more than 0.9 wt.%. The alloys cannot be used as conductor wire, and it is clear thanv the copper content must be less than 0.4 wt.% in the present invention. It

is also understood that Mg, Fe and Sb should be restricted less than 0.6 wt.%, 0.7 wt.% and 0.6 wt.% respectively, and the total amount of Fe and Cu must be restricted less than 0.7 wt.%. Otherwise, as in case of the comparative alloy of No. 32, only poor drawability is obtained.

As understood from the above, the present inventive conductor wires have drawability equal to that of the conventional ECAL and 5005 alloys.

EXAMPLE 3 The wires of the present invention 3, l0, 10, 22, 26, and 29 and comparative wires 1, 4, 6, 7, l3 and 32 set forth in Table l were cast and hot-rolled into wire rods, 8mm in diameter, by the same method as in Example 1, and they were cold-worked at the reduction rate of 99% and annealed for hours at various temperatures stated in Table 4 obtain semi-hard and soft wires. Their tensile strength and electric conductivity at C were measured, and the result are shown in Table 4.

As clearly understood from Table 4, in order to produce the conventional E.CAl semi-hard alloy, the annealing temperature range must be restricted so that variations in properties become very large. Whereas in case of the present inventive conductor wire, strength equal to that of E.CAl semi-hard alloy can be obtained with full annealing so that the production is very simple and easy and stability in property and quality can be obtained. Semi-hard grades of the present inventive alloys have tensile strength equal to that of hardened E.CAl alloy and show excellent ductility, and thus very useful for coilings, communication wires and so on. The reason why such excellent properties can be attained is that an appropriate amount of intermetallic compound of Mg and Sb is dispersed in aluminium. For example, in case of the comparative Al-Mg alloy of No. 4 Al-Cu alloy of No. 13 and Al-Sb-Cu alloy of No. 13, the conductivity is not balanced with strength, and it is clear from this that the intermetallic compound of Mg and Sb must be present.

Even when Mg and Sb are present in an appropriate amount, if Fe and Cu or the total amount of Fe and Cu are more than 0.7 wt as in case of the conventional alloy of No. 32, conductivity is too low in spite of high tensile strength and thus unsuitable for conductor wires.

EXAMPLE 4 Wire rods of the wires of the present invention 3, 8, l3, 17, 20, 24 and 30 and comparative wires 1, 7 and 23 of Table l were produced by the same method as in Example 1, and cold drawn at the reduction rate of more than 89%, and they were then annealed at about 300 7 C, and again cold-drawn at varying reduction rates of 10%, 20%, 40% and to obtain semi-hard wires.

Their tensile strength,elongation and electrical conductivity were measured and results are shown in Table As understood from Table 5, the present inventive alloy can be converted into semi-hard wires by annealing and cold working, and thus obtained semi-hard wires have excellent properties unexpectable from the semi-hard wires-of conventional conductor aluminium.

The reason why the present inventive conductor wires have such excellent properties is that an appropriate amount of the intermetallic compound of Mg and Sb is uniformly dispersed, which has thermal stability and increases work hardening ability. Therefore, in case of Cu addition, when Cu should not be added in an amount more than 0.4 wt.%, otherwise an intermediate phase or a stabilized phase of Cu hinders the uniform dispersion of Mg.Sb compound.

By the way the elongations at 60% of working smaller than those in Table 2 are due to the smaller diameters in the present example.

As understood from the above examples, the excellent properties of the present inventive conductor wires cannot be obtained by a binary alloy such as Al-Sb alloy, Al-Mg alloy, Al-Fe alloy and Al-Cu alloy, a ternary alloy such as Al-Sb-Fe alloy, Al-Sb-Cu alloy, Al-Mg-Fe alloy and Al-Mg-Cu alloy and by an alloy such as Al- Mg-Fe-Cu and Al-Sb-Fe-Cu. It is essentially necessary that the intermetallic compound of Mg and Sb is present in aluminium, and excellent properties as conductor wire such as conductivity, tensile strength, elongation, bending property and drawability are obtained only when the amount of Mg and Sb and the amount of Cu and Fe are specifically restricted.

The conductor wire of the present invention is useful for various kinds of overhead conductors in the form of hard wire, and useful for various conductors such as for communication, indoor wirings and ceilings in the form of semi-hard and soft grades which are obtained by annealing alone or annealing cold drawing the hard wires.

TABLE 1 Alloy Compositions (wt.%)

Alloys Sb Mg Fe Cu Al Inventive Wire 1 0.05 0.2 Balance TABLE 4 Annealing Temperature C. Alloys Properties 240 200 400 500 600 Tensile Strength (Kg/mm) 15.1 14.3 14.3 14.3 12.7 lnventive Wires 3 Elongation (3%) 5.0 17 19 20 13 Conductivity (k lACS) 61.5 62.4 62.6 62.6 62.3 Tensile Strength (Kg/mm) 14.9 14.8 14.8 14.5 12.9 10 Elongation 5.3 21 24 32 15 Conductivity (7i lACS) 60.0 60.5 60.6 60.5 60.5 Tensile Strength (Kg/mm) 17.5 15.3 15.3 15.0 14.0 x19 Elongation (9%) 5.0 17 20 21 16 Conductivity lACS) 60.2 60.6 60.6 60.6 60.3 Tensile Strength (Kg/mm) 18.3 16.1 16.2 16.0 15.0 22 Elongation (9%) 4.0 8.0 15 15 13 Conductivity (%1ACS) 59.7 59.8 59.8 59.6 59.5 Tensile Strength (Kg/mm) 14.3 13.8 13.8 12.9 12.0 26 Elongation 6.0 17 21 21 13 Conductivity (%1ACS) 61.8 61.9 62.0 62.0 61.8 Tensile Strength (Kg/mm) 15.2 15.0 15.0 15.0 14.4 29 Elongation (7%) 4.5 20 2O 2O 16 Conductivity (%1ACS) 58.1 58.2 58.3 58.2 58.2 Tensile Strength (kg/mm) 7.2 6.5 6.4 6.2 6.0 Comparative Wires Elongation (36) 6.0 20 19 19 9 l (ECAl) Conductivity (%1ACS) 62.6 63.0 63.0 63.0 62.0 Tensile Strength (Kg/mm) 15.0 10.0 10.2 10.0 9.0 4 Elongation (96) 2.0 43 24 24 7 Conductivity (%1ACS) 54.0 54.8 55.0 55.0 54.0 Tensile Strength (Kg/mm) 14.0 10.0 9.5 9.2 8.0 6 Elongation (36) 1.5 15 15 15 10 Conductivity (%1ACS) 60.1 60.5 60.8 61.0 60.8 Tensile Strength (Kg/mm 12.0 12.0 11.6 11.0 10.9 7 Elongation (36) 4.0 20 17 13 7 (5005) Conductivity (%1ACS) 55.1 55.1 55.1 55.1 54.9 Tensile Strength (Kg/mm) 15.0 10.1 10.0 10.0 9.2 13 Elongation (16) 1.5 15 13 12 6 Conductivity lACS) 59.8 60.0 60.2 60.2 60.1 Tensile Strength Kg/mm') 15.1 13.9 14.0 13.0 12.5 32 Elongation (36) 3.0 15 15 15 10 Conductivity (%1ACS) 57.3 57.9 57.9 58.1 58

TABLE Cold Drawing Reduction after Annealing Alloys Properties 20% 40% 60% Tensile Strength I (Kg/mm) 11.5 12.7 15.6 17.5 lnventive Wires Elongation (70) 20.0 7.0 5.5 2.4

Conductivity lACS) 62.5 62.5 62.5 62.5

Tensile Strength (Kg/mm) 10.8 11.9 14.6 16.9 8 Elongation (36) 16 7.2 4.0 2.4

Conductivity (%1ACS) 62.5 62.4 62.3 62.3 Tensile Strength (Kg/mm) 13.0 14.5 17.3 19.4 13 Elongation 17.0 8.0 4.9 2.8

Conductivity I (%1ACS) 61.3 61.2 61.2 610 Tensile Strength (Kg/mm) 11.6 12.5 15.5 17.4 17 Elongation (X) 15 6.8 4.0' 2.4

Conductivity (k IACS) 62.6 62.5 6 .4 62 3 Tensile Strength (Kg/mm) 15.2 16.1 19.1 21.0 20 Elongation 10.0 5.0 3.5 2.0

Conductivity (%1ACS) 59.6 59.4 59 3 59 O Tensile Strength (Kg/mm) 13.0 14.2 16.5 19.3 24 Elongation 15 6.8 9.0 2.9

Conductivity (%1ACS) 61.8 61.7 61.7 61.7 Tensile Strength lnventive Wires (Kg/mm) 13.9 15.0 18.2 20.2 30 Elongation 12 6.0 3.6 2.0

Conductivity (%1ACS) 61.2 61.1 61.0 61.0 Tensile Strength (Kg/mm) 8.2 9.0 1212 14.4 Comparative Wires 1(ECA1) Elongation 13.0 4.9 3.0 1.0

Conductivity lACS) 62.8 62.6 62.6 62.6 Tensile Strength (Kg/mm) 12.0 12.7 15 5 17.4 7 Elongation 20 5.0 1.7

Conductivity lACS) 55.1 54.8 54.8 54.5 Tensile Strength (Kg/mm) 9.3 10.0 13.2 14.5 23 Elongation 20 7.0 3.0 2.4

Conductivity lACS) 62.5 62.4 62.3 62.3

We claim:

1. An aluminum alloy conductor wire consisting essentially of about 0.01 0.6% by weight antimony, about 0.05 0.6% by weight magnesium, less than 0.4% by weight copper and less than 0.7% by weight of a member selected from the group consisting of iron, nickel and manganese, the balance being aluminum and unavoidable impurities thereof, a part of the antimony and magnesium forming an intermetallic compound, said compound being uniformly dispersed in an aluminum matrix, the alloy wire having, when cold drawn and not annealed, a minimum conductivity of 54% lACS and when annealed and then cold drawn, a minimum conductivity of 58% IACS.

2. An aluminum conductor wire according to claim 1 which contains 0.01 to 0.1% by weight antimony and,

0.08 to 0.3% by weight magnesium.

3. An aluminum conductor wire according to claim 1 which contains 0.05 to 0.45 weight percent antimony, 0.1 to 0.6% magnesium and 0.05 to 0.4% copper.

4. An aluminum conductor wire according to claim 1 which contains 0.15 to 0.6% iron.

5. An aluminum conductor wire according to claim 1 wherein the total amount of iron and copper is 0.05 to 0.5%. 

2. An aluminum conductor wire according to claim 1 which contains 0.01 to 0.1% by weight antimony and 0.08 to 0.3% by weight magnesium.
 3. An aluminum conductor wire according to claim 1 which contains 0.05 to 0.45 weight percent antimony, 0.1 to 0.6% magnesium and 0.05 to 0.4% copper.
 4. An aluminum conductor wire according to claim 1 which contains 0.15 to 0.6% iron.
 5. An aluminum conductor wire according to claim 1 wherein the total amount of iron and copper is 0.05 to 0.5%. 